Re: [Swprograms] More on Sirius, Post-Stern

["Mark J. Fine" <mark.fine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

John Figliozzi wrote:
> FWIW, Mark... same situation up here in Albany viz Sirius and XM  
> stock on hand in stores.  Evidently, Sirius had a significant higher  
> share of new subs than XM during the 4thQ of '05.  I can only explain  
> it in terms of the Stern factor.

That would seem to explain it, but it almost sounds surreal, doesn't it? 
LuAnn's listened to Stern since we lived in Jersey ~20 years ago. That 
was back when WNEW-FM actually played "album-oriented" rock.

Which reminds me that we finally got to see "Private Parts" (albeit 
ironically censored) on Comedy Channel this month. I remember the whole 
W-Nnnnn-BC fiasco quite clearly. This was at a time when Don Imus used 
to call up housewives and ask them on-air, over their 50kw flagship AM 
station, if they were nekkid [a-yaw]. So, I'm also not buying into the 
whole idea how Stern "created" the genre. He may have made it popular, 
he may have pushed it to the next level, but Imus definitely spawned it 
in the NY market.

But back to the Sirius/XM debate... Having actually heard both services 
(for those that don't know, XM's now on DirecTV), I really don't see a 
lot of what XM has to offer. For all intents and purposes, XM (or at 
least the watered-down version that DTV gives us), is really no better 
than the Music Choice selections that it replaced. It's just safe, 
average stuff. There's nothing real special other than the MLB contract 
and Opie/Anthony, and I'm not terribly impressed with that.

If you think about it, the Stern factor may be a different animal from 
what we might think. It's quite possible that Sirius, generated greater 
curiosity from consumers by getting Stern than people that actually 
listen to him. The pure publicity that was generated was unprecedented. 
I have no problem believing that it was a lot more positive than XM's 
"exposure" deals with DTV and AOL (you can also get XM via AIM). The 
problem with XM is that once you actually see what you've got versus 
Sirius, Sirius wins hands down. XM may find out that they can't even 
give it away and win.

As an aside, after three months of the XM deal, I'm wishing DTV still 
had Music Choice. Music Choice provided a lot of good Freeview material 
re: concerts, etc. that DTV showed on weekends. For example, in three 
successive months, they aired the recent Queens of the Stone Age concert 
DVD, the Audioslave in Cuba DVD, and the John Mayer Trio concert just 
last month. DTV replaced these extremely well-produced programs with 
their over-produced, over-commercialized, and amateurishly-hosted weekly 
train wreck called CD USA. It's hard to watch, even in HD.

-- 

Mark J. Fine
Remington, Virginia, USA

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